March 2012

Have you heard of this remarkable first novel by Ransom Riggs? This bestseller is called Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, and I was delighted to finally get my hands on a copy from the library this week. I requested it as an interlibrary loan and the librarian pretty much said, “Oh, this is a bestseller! I will order it instead.” Then I was placed on a subsequent waiting list—at number 26! Go figure. Well, the wait is long over, and I have since read and enjoyed this fun novel.

The book is very different from so many others because it employs both text as well as old peculiar photographs to tell the story. Indeed, some of the story feels like it was catered to randomly fit a few photos, which is fine—the rest were really worked in with finesse. The author credits several people who collected these old black and whites over the years at the end of his book, and I must say that these are often the most disturbing elements in the whole book.